Northern Cup 2019

Northern Cup 2019

At Manchester

Saturday

JDRTC’s Tony Harrison started off the defence against Ken Townsend. It was a battle for the service end as both players showed their wide variety of unique serves. Tony fought back from 7- 5 down to get to 7 all but Ken played lovely tennis in the deciding game to win the match, giving Manchester the lead.

0-1

Next up was the youth section of Jesmond Dene Mark Dickinson against Graham Heap. Mark won 2 crucial games from 40 owe 15 to take the game 8-4.

1-1

Nick “the blast” Thompson showed lovely control to beat Tony Loughton 8-4. A particular highlight was winning two good chases in the 10th game to go 6-4 up. If only he could always be playing off a chase 2!

2-1

Richard Sanderson and Norman Hyde started off the doubles. Having never played before they took some time to gel together and struggled against an experienced pair of Harding and Farnworth.

2-2

Next was Dean Juric, who volleyed well against the nippy Carl Hamill, but struggled to find a good length and lost 8- 4.

2-3

JDRTC’s captain Simon Johnston was up next against the hard-hitting Graham Heap. Simon played consistent tennis and wore his opponent down with traditional real tennis.

3-3

Another double pairing Tony and Richard who kept their opponents guessing by swapping positions. There where some long rests in this close game of doubles, but Manchester made less mistakes and came out on top and regained the lead.

3-4

The final game of Saturday was Simon Johnston and Mark Dickinson giving away the largest handicap of the tournament. They both managed to keep the error count down and bring the score back to 4-4.

4-4

A tense Sunday awaited both teams.

Sunday

Tony and Dean started us off . Dean’s strong volleying continued. Both sides kept the ball in play leading to some very long rests, with time running out Manchester won a vital 40 all and took the game 7-6.

4-5

Nick and Dean served superbly in the next game and peppered the grille to bring it back to 5 all.

5-5

Norman Hyde got off to a great start against Ken Townson and kept the pressure on to take the game and give Jesmond the lead.

6-5

Simon and Mark were back in action against Robin Barlow and Carl Hamill. The game was extremely close with some excellent retrieving by all. A few too many mistakes from Mark early on gave Manchester the lead and Jesmond couldn’t quite get back level in time as the bell went at 5-4 to Manchester.

6-6

Everything had come down to the last game. Nick Thompson and Richard Sanderson took on Tony Lawton and Martin Farnsworth. Nick played good aggressive tennis forcing errors from Manchester. Richard retrieved well keeping the ball in play and Jesmond won fairly comfortably to retain the Northern Cup.

Final Score 7-6

A fabulous weekend of tennis and a big thank you to Manchester Real Tennis Club for there generous hospitality.